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To Stew Salmon

A salmon stew made with white gravy, soy sauce, anchovy essence, salt, parsley, and chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Stew Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and scrape the salmon.

  2. Cut the salmon into slices.

Make the stew

  1. Stew the salmon in a rich white gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add soy sauce, essence of anchovy, salt, chopped parsley, and chopped chives.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Salmon + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Salmon + chivetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the stew.
Rich white gravy
Supplies moisture and a creamy, rich base that coats the fish.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth to the gravy.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a concentrated savory, umami note to the stew.

The step that matters

Stewing the salmon. Salmon proteins set and toughen with prolonged or vigorous heat, so it should cook gently just until opaque and tender. Overcooking leaves it dry and firm in the gravy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, sauce, anchovy, chive):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sauce, anchovy, chive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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